For all the change that Abu Dhabi wealth has brought to Manchester City, one thing remained the same: they couldn’t buy a win on Wearside.
Not since the day before Sheikh Mansour’s takeover in the summer of 2008 had City tasted victory at the Stadium of Light.
One of the Premier League’s more peculiar statistics had seen them suffer four consecutive 1-0 defeats here before this game.
Not since the day before Sheikh Mansour’s takeover in the summer of 2008 had City tasted victory at the Stadium of Light.
One of the Premier League’s more peculiar statistics had seen them suffer four consecutive 1-0 defeats here before this game.
How? Goodness knows. It was just one of those quirky things that football throws up sometimes.
After City announced reduced annual losses of £22.9million and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak spoke about the lavish spending coming to an end, it was one of their more extravagant buys who laid that jinx to rest.
Sergio Aguero cost £38m but, as he continues to justify comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo and his close friend Lionel Messi, the Argentina striker looks like an absolute steal. Aguero scored two goals — one a blockbuster — and set up another. The Premier League’s top scorer now has 19 goals in all competitions this season.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini, who has now overseen four straight wins in all competitions, said: ‘Finally we win here. We played very well and we’re returning to the form we had last season.’
Pellegrini confirmed that captain Vincent Kompany has only an outside chance of making next week’s Champions League decider against Roma following scans on his hamstring.
In the absence of Kompany and the suspended Eliaquim Mangala, Dedryck Boyata made his first Premier League appearance in a year.
Sunderland boss Gus Poyet also made a switch in central defence as he rested Wes Brown and gave Sebastian Coates his first League start since arriving on loan from Liverpool in the summer.
Both changes contributed to two goals in the space of three first-half minutes.
Sunderland had been the only team to really threaten up to that point when Pablo Zabaleta blocked an effort from former City midfielder Jack Rodwell.
Zabaleta was not so fortunate in the 19th minute as Connor Wickham — who terrorised City with both goals in a 2-2 draw at the Etihad in April that almost cost them the title — opened the scoring.
Boyata had lost track of his man when Seb Larsson’s clever reverse pass picked out Wickham, who took it in his stride with a neat first touch. There was still plenty of work to do with Boyata on one shoulder, Zabaleta on the other and Joe Hart racing off his line.
Zabaleta made a last, desperate attempt to win the ball with a sliding tackle but only succeeded in playing it against Wickham’s right leg and it bobbled past Hart into the corner.
Sunderland 1, City 0 had a horribly familiar ring about it for the champions, but they rallied and were level almost straightaway. Coates will not want to see too many replays of the equaliser, however.
Aguero appeared to have lost control of the ball when he took an uncharacteristically heavy touch to collect Stevan Jovetic’s short pass, but Coates hesitated rather than committing himself to a challenge.
The City striker slipped the ball through the Uruguyan’s legs and suddenly had a clear sight of goal from 20 yards.
Ex-City keeper Costel Pantilimon must have known what was coming next, but the strike was stunning in its ferocity even by Aguero’s standards — flying into the net off his right boot.
Having demonstrated his power, Aguero then produced some quite wonderful panache to set up the second for Jovetic six minutes before half time.
Yaya Toure drilled a pass into his teammate, who was being closely marshalled by Coates and John O’Shea.
Unfortunately for Sunderland, that meant Jovetic was unmarked and Aguero knew it. He used the weight of the pass to spin the ball into his teammate’s path with a flick of his right foot.
Jovetic let it bounce once and then rifled it through Pantilimon’s legs.
The gulf in class between the two teams was clear again when Zabaleta got City’s third 10 minutes into the second half. Again Coates stood off his man as Samir Nasri teased the defender on the righthand side of the box before cheekily lifting the ball into the path of Zabaleta.
The Argentina defender then produced an even better touch, dinking the ball over Pantilimon and just inside the post.
Zabaleta celebrated the news that his wife is five months pregnant by putting the ball up his shirt and sucking his thumb like a dummy.
The jeers from the Sunderland supporters suggested they did not share his joy at that particular moment.
But this was the Aguero show and he struck again in the 71st minute, getting away from Santiago Vergini to meet James Milner’s pass and guide it past Pantilimon for his second and City’s fourth.
‘I was hoping Aguero would have a rest today,’ lamented Poyet. ‘Without him, it would have been a different game. ‘
The striker was substituted soon after scoring his second and no wonder. On this form, City must protect Aguero like the Crown Jewels.
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